Brewers defy odds to win NL Central, then walk off Phillies
Murphy leads Milwaukee to 3rd division title in 4 years: 'This is a special group of guys'
Adam McCalvy
@AdamMcCalvyMILWAUKEE -- It was supposed to be a season to slow down and pass the baton to the next generation, but the 2024 Brewers had other ideas.
They said no thanks to a transition year and instead became the first team across MLB to punch a ticket to the postseason on Wednesday, clinching the National League Central courtesy of the Cubs¡¯ afternoon loss to the A¡¯s. They held the celebration until the conclusion of a walk-off 2-1 win over the Phillies, sparked by 20-year-old sensation Jackson Chourio¡¯s leadoff triple in the bottom of the ninth inning.
When Chourio scampered home on Jake Bauers¡¯ winning single, the Brewers could finally cut loose. They¡¯ve won the division for the second straight season, the third time in the past four seasons and the fourth time in the past six seasons that MLB has played a full schedule. Including the shortened 2020 campaign, the Brewers have made the postseason in six of the past seven years.
¡°When we got here today, we knew the situation and we saw the Cubs game and we knew we clinched already,¡± said Freddy Peralta, who racked up nine strikeouts over five innings on Wednesday night and is a lock to start Game 1 of the playoffs. ¡°We talked among ourselves and let everybody know, ¡®We¡¯re not going to do anything. We still need to win tonight.¡¯¡±
So the initial celebration at American Family Field was a modest one, since the Brewers, who are still chasing the Phillies and Dodgers for one of the top two seeds in the NL postseason field (and a first-round bye), were preparing for their night game against Philadelphia. When A¡¯s closer Mason Miller took the mound at Wrigley Field, Brewers players left reporters behind in the clubhouse and gathered in the weight room so they could watch the division-clinching out as a team.
"We've been going at it together since the middle of February, so getting to cherish that moment with the guys and only the guys was something we talked about," said Rhys Hoskins, whose home run off former Phillies teammate Aaron Nola tied the game in the fifth inning. "Those are the types of things we're going to remember beyond this year."
This year certainly has been one to remember. The Brewers won without manager Craig Counsell (free agent) and co-aces Corbin Burnes (traded) and Brandon Woodruff (injured). They won with back injuries sidelining reigning National League Reliever of the Year Devin Williams for the first four months and NL batting leader Christian Yelich for the final two.
They won with a speed and defense-oriented roster populated by prospects like Chourio, who was the youngest Brewer to debut on Opening Day since Robin Yount arrived 50 years ago.
They again had a formidable pitching staff with the NL¡¯s second-best ERA, featuring a motley crew of unsung heroes like right-hander Tobias Myers, a well-traveled 26-year-old who is two years removed from going 1-15 with a 7.82 ERA in the Minors, but this year owns the Majors¡¯ fourth-best ERA since the start of June.
And they won for Pat Murphy, the longtime college coach who came to Milwaukee as bench coach in 2016 at the behest of Counsell, his onetime pupil at Notre Dame. Murphy turned 65 last November, soon after finally getting his shot to be a full-time Major League manager.
On Opening Day, the PECOTA system projected 79 wins for the Brewers. They reached that total with a full month of the regular season yet to play, and with baseball¡¯s best run differential.
Then they became the first team to punch a postseason ticket, matching the 2021 Brewers for the earliest clinch in franchise history.
¡°I try not to pay a lot of attention to those expectations,¡± general manager Matt Arnold said. ¡°If anything, they galvanized us. They help provide us with fuel. It doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re wrong, necessarily, because a lot of times those [projections] are spot-on. But I think it drives us every day to say, ¡®How do we get better?¡¯¡±
Said Brewers owner Mark Attanasio: ¡°So much goes into this, thousands and thousands of hours from everybody. And yet, you never know. The way this group of guys came together, you have to give Murph and the coaches credit for the way they pulled everyone together and got these guys to believe in themselves when nobody else did. Nobody.¡±
Turns out, it was the offense that took the biggest step forward. The Brewers went into Wednesday night with the fourth-best on-base percentage in the Majors and ranked fourth in runs per game. Last season, they ranked 17th in both categories.
"I hope we do a good job of keeping it under control when we celebrate, and then start to look forward and get after the next phase of this," Murphy said. "This is a special group of guys, and they believed at some point.
"I hope they continue to believe."
All season, Murphy found little ways to remind the Brewers who they are. There is still an ¡°Average Joe¡¯s¡± jersey hanging in Murphy¡¯s office, and if you saw Patches O¡¯Houlihan inspire the Joe¡¯s to victory over Globo Gym in the 2004 comedy film ¡°Dodgeball,¡± you understand the reference. There were T-shirts with ¡°UNDAUNTED¡± across the chest, and talk of clubhouse ¡°pillars¡± like Yelich and Peralta, the Brewers¡¯ longest-tenured players.
Last weekend in Phoenix, the Brewers listened to an intense pregame speech from Dustin Pedroia, who played for Murphy at Arizona State before he was an AL Rookie of the Year and MVP Award winner and World Series champion.
¡°We don¡¯t have any superstars,¡± Murphy said. ¡°You can say [Willy] Adames is having a superstar year, and [William] Contreras. You can say Chourio is going to be a superstar someday.
¡°But when we started out this year, it was, 'This team is decimated by injuries. This team just made a huge trade [of Burnes]. Devin is out most of the year. They cut the budget.' It was like, ¡®Hey, guys, this is who we are. What are we going to do? Are we going to throw in the towel right now? Or are we going to fight?¡¯
¡°They¡¯ve been fighting ever since.¡±
Now, can they crack the code that has eluded them during this run and advance deep into October?
"We're going to get told we have zero chance to win the World Series," Yelich said. "But it doesn't really matter."
Yelich and Peralta are the only players who have been part of all six of Milwaukee's postseason entries since 2018. They know the pressure has been mounting to advance past the first round, something the Brewers have not done since taking the Dodgers all the way to a seventh game of the NLCS in '18.
But no matter what happens in the weeks ahead, Yelich was ready to count this clinch right up there with 2018 among his favorites.
"We were all kind of written off, right?" he said. "That makes this one kind of special. ... This is the first step of many. We don't really know how it's going to play out."